Western Route: Hajigabul

Population of the district: 60 thousand people; the district center, the town of Hajigabul: 22 thousand people.

HAJIGABUL DISTRICT occupies part of ancient Mughan, a fertile land on the Kura-Araz plain. The climate is semi-desert: dry and hot, with mild winters. In winter the air temperature does not drop below plus 6 degrees. There is little rainfall. Despite this, there are stretches of tugay forests and shrubland along the course of the KURA river.

The district has Lake HAJIGABUL, formed as a result of the natural retreat of the Caspian Sea during a certain geological period. The spring floods of the Kura enlarged the lake, and today it also receives warm water from the Alibayramli State District Power Plant. The lake is shallow, only 5 meters deep, and does not freeze in winter. It is of great importance as a wintering site for migratory birds and a nesting site for waterfowl and wetland birds, many of which are rare and endangered species.

Carpet weaving was well developed here. The tradition of hand-woven carpets of the "Sary khalcha" type of the Shirvan school has survived to this day.

The town of HAJIGABUL is the administrative center of the district. Distance from Baku: 113 km. The name of the town translates as "May the Almighty accept your Hajj". The Hajj is the pilgrimage to the holy places of Muslims, Mecca and Medina. A person who has performed the Hajj receives the honorary title of "hajji", which becomes a prefix to their name. The Hajj is essentially a set of spiritual concepts that also include prayers to the Almighty for mercy, various vows, and so on. So the name of the town tells us that it was a stopping place not only for merchant caravans but also for those performing the Hajj. Sometimes pilgrims traveled with caravans, but some vowed to make the Hajj on foot. And there were once caravanserais here to receive both pilgrims and merchants traveling to the Persian Gulf region.

Near Lake Hajigabul, Shah Abbas also built a large caravanserai in the 16th century, and during the Safavid dynasty a town was built, which was then called Mahmudabad. Later this name was forgotten, and the town again came to be called Hajigabul. However, people lived on this spot as long as 5 thousand years ago: northwest of the town, on Mount HARAMI, archaeologists discovered the remains of a cyclopean structure with petroglyphs on its walls. Around it, images of people and unusual, fantastic animals have also been found on the stones. Scientists date this site to the Eneolithic period.

Other historical and architectural monuments have also survived around Hajigabul. In the village of Gubaly-Baloglan there is the Pir Huseyn khanqah, which includes an old mosque with a minaret, fortress walls, a caravanserai and living quarters (13th-14th centuries), and the mausoleum of Sheikh Huseyn, who lived in the 11th century and in whose honor the mausoleum was erected two centuries later; there is also an old bridge (17th-19th centuries). The glazed tiles of the khanqah are rightly considered among the finest in the entire Muslim East. Today some of the tiles are kept in the State Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and in the Nizami Ganjavi Museum of Literature in Baku.

In the village of Udulu, the GUNGERMEZ defensive tower from the early Middle Ages has survived. Its name speaks of the defenders' determination not to yield to their enemies to the very last.